Easy and Effective Ways to Retarget Your Holiday Shoppers

In just a few short days, the Christmas season will be over. All of the decorations, plans, cookie-baking, and ornamentation will go with it.

But that doesn’t mean your holiday marketing plans have to come to a halt.

In fact, retargeting the customers you acquired over the holiday can mean dramatic results for your business: one study suggests that four weeks of retargeted ad exposure boost site traffic some 726%.

The concept of retargeting is simple: you collected some leads over the holiday season at your shop, and you’re not ready to let go of them just yet. Putting a solid retargeting plan in place will help you continue to make increased sales even as we enter 2018, which in turn extends the holiday season. Think of it as your self-renewing “Christmas miracle.” Here’s how to do it.

Isolate Returning Customers with Facebook Ads

Shopify has a detailed guide for targeting those who have specifically interacted your business before, which helps you pick up with any leads that might not have pulled the trigger before Christmas. By using Facebook ads for targeting those who have already given you an email address or have even visited your website, you can create “stickier” ads that linger with them, even after all the gift-wrapping is done.

How do you do it? Here are a few key steps:

Create a custom audience on Facebook. Shopify is big on these. You can choose “Engagement on Facebook” to create a custom audience that specifically deals with retargeting ads.

Create a custom list based on information from your customer files. This is a great feature, because it doesn’t require any extra info-gathering on your part—that means no new campaigns. Right after the holidays, you’re off to the races.

The key here: narrow down your focus on Facebook and create a custom campaign specifically designed for those who have engaged with your content before.

Using Mobile Apps for Retargeting Customers

You don’t have to know everything there is to know about Facebook marketing to make this work. Keep in mind that there are also apps like RetargetApp (which focuses on Facebook Ads) to make the process much smoother.

Mobile apps might not deliver the level of customization you want, but you don’t necessarily need to poke into every single detail of each campaign to get the value out of a retargeting campaign. If you want convenience but don’t want to miss out on the seasonal traffic, consider an app like RetargetApp.

Tips for Converting the Unconverted

What happens when you do reach the potential customers who ultimately decided not to buy from your shop? Here are a few tips for converting those who never made the full leap from “lead” to “customer”:

Tailor your advertising message. Since a retargeting campaign is, by definition, aimed at a highly specific group of people, you have a few advantages working in your favor. One of them: you know exactly who you’re talking to. You can personalize any ads by directly inviting people in for a second look. Don’t use your generic advertising headlines—instead, talk to people on a more personal level.

Create an incentive for returning. A simple post-holiday discount might be easy on your end, but for a customer, it might be the entire reason they return at all. Create a sense of urgency by providing a temporary incentive for their returning—they’ll feel like geniuses, and you’ll make the sale.

Persistence, persistence, persistence. The key here is to remind someone about your fantastic product. This requires persistence. Not the kind of persistence that makes a customer want to say “never advertise to me again,” mind you. But don’t give up after one week of retargeting. Give your campaigns a chance to breathe, grow, and organically attract the people who were on the fence and suddenly have the impulse to revisit you.

A retargeting campaign should be highly effective if you do it right—after all, you’re isolating a group of people who have previously expressed interest in your products. Make sure that you understand the methods (online advertising segments) and ad-generating tips (creating incentives and specialized headlines) that make use of this unique opportunity.

After reading this guide you’ll be ready to take on Amazon. As always, at Gooten, we’re here to help. We have thousands of products that are ready to find a home with your customers, what are you waiting for?